It's not a given that there will be a "wild card" episode of 'America's Got Talent' so ejected acts can come back and try again to compete for the $1 million prize, but eliminated magician Landon Swank is reason enough to have one this year.

The judges had to decide tonight between Swank and Smage Bros., the motorcyle stunt team, as to which act would make it through to the semi-finals. After judges Piers Morgan and Sharon Osbourne split their votes between the acts, it was left to judge Howie Mandel to break the tie -- and he chose the Smage Bros.

"I don't want to be the person responsible for sending someone home," Mandel sighed to AOL TV after the taping. Still, he feels he made the right decision.

The second round of quarterfinals is over, and while it wasn't as strong as the first round, there were still several acts deserving of continuing on.

Of the 12 that performed, only four would go on to the next round of 'America's Got Talent' (Wed., 9PM ET on NBC). But who would it be?

To pad the hour, we were treated to a great musical performance by Hot Chelle Rae on their huge smash single 'Tonight, Tonight.'

The other guest performance was from an acrobatic troupe called Traces, which could well be a future destination for male pole dancer Steven Retchless. It was breathtaking and something future contenders should pay close attention to.

!!SPOILER ALERT!!

As for the results, we're starting to see an interesting trend unfold on 'AGT' this season. While the show normally pushes forward more traditional fare like singing and dancing, that hasn't been as strongly the case this year. In fact, of the four singers this week, only one made it through.

This week saw twelve acts perform on 'America's Got Talent' (Wed. 9PM ET on NBC), but only four could go onto the semifinals. The acts were as varied as they were talented, including two that irritated Piers Morgan to no end: 'Those Funny Little People' and comedian J. Chris Newberg.

But the judges were united in their support of 11-year old singing phenom Anna Graceman, who wowed again with her rendition of Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World.'

Also a hit with the judges were the dangerous acts Fearless Flores Family and Sandou Trio Russian Bar, and dancers Snap Boogie and the Miami All Stars. But who got through?

A dozen of dynamic (and some not so dynamic) acts appeared in the first quarter-finals on 'America's Got Talent' last night. 'Miami All-Stars' is arguably the best dance group that's ever appeared on the show while 'Sandou Trio Russian Bar' performed a death-defying act that served as a memorable show-stopper.

But it's 'Those Funny Little People' that may stand the best chance of advancing to the next round. Why, you ask? The over-sized puppets managed to not only entertain with their homages to 'Singin' in the Rain' and 'It's Raining Men,' but, perhaps more importantly, the group, which was supported by judge Howie Mandel, truly got under the skin of judge Piers Morgan.

And while viewers watch 'AGT' to see the next million-dollar act get discovered they also tune in to watch the bickering between Morgan, Mandel and fellow judge Sharon Osbourne.

AOL TV was on the scene at the show's taping in Hollywood last night and spoke to the judges after the show about the funny big effect that 'Those Funny Little People' have on Morgan.

The quarter-finals are underway, with the first of four groups of contestants competing on 'America's Got Talent' (Tue., 9PM ET on NBC) this week. One of the most mesmerizing groups in the earlier rounds of auditions has been Sandou Trio Russian Bar.

The balance that it takes to perform those flips on a bar held by two men is just astonishing, though we found ourselves starting to wonder if you could build an act around it ... and if she could jump facing the other way.

Nevertheless, adding a bed of nails and ultimately fire beneath the bar kept things exciting, giving one of the more crowd-pleasing performances of the evening. Other favorites of the judges included 11-year old singing phenom Anna Graceman, Echo the Parrot, dancer Snap Boogie and dance troupe Miami All Stars. Who did you love?

When we first met Daniel Joseph Baker on 'America's Got Talent' (Wed., 8PM ET on FOX) he gave an impressive and over-the-top rendition of Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance.' In Vegas Week, though, he replaced sass with raw emotion in the opening lines of Gaga's 'Speechless,' though he turned up the showmanship with a bizarre foot drop onto the piano keys toward the end.

Regardless, Baker proved himself a powerhouse vocalist, blowing away the other male singers who were watching from backstage. Then he blew himself away by earning a spot in the Top 48. Now, in order to blow America, we think Baker should expand his repertoire beyond the musical stylings of Lady Gaga. We love her too, Baker, but we want you to stand separate from her.

Susan Boyle taught us to never judge a book by it's cover. And while we'd say Landau doesn't have quite as unexpected a look on 'America's Got Talent' (Wed., 9PM ET on NBC), he still managed to surprise us.

A guy in a laid back casual dress style rocking dredlocks might be expected to belt out reggae, light rock or even smooth jazz, but we're pretty sure nobody was expecting a flawless Rat Pack big band sound to come out of him.

Even more impressively, Landau admitted he'd never before auditioned for anything. And yet his vocal control and poise on stage was so flawless it was as if he'd been singing professional his whole life.

You're the kind of reason that we like doing the show," Piers Morgan told him. "Because you come out of nowhere. You've never auditioned before in your life and you have a natural God-given talent."

One of the things that never ceases to amaze us on 'America's Got Talent' (Tue., 8PM ET on NBC) is how astonishingly talented some kids are. Eleven-year old Anna Graceman didn't look like a superstar when she walked out on stage, and she didn't even sound like one after her performance.

But when she sat behind that piano and belted out Alicia Keys' 'If I Ain't Got You,' it was a moment when you stand up and take notice. Like Jackie Evancho wowed people with the maturity of her opera voice, Graceman does it with a more contemporary pop sound.

So authentic and believable was her vocal performance, it was a little jarring when she came up to talk to the judges and there was just a little girl standing there. It's the kind of raw talent we don't want to wait until she's old enough for the likes of 'American Idol' to see. We want more now, and luckily so did the judges, sending her to Las Vegas and the next round.

After Fighting Gravity made it to the Final Four last season on 'America's Got Talent' (Wed., 9PM ET on NBC) it was inevitable we'd see a lot of acts that mixed dance and performance art with darkness and illusion.

The Silhouettes are a dance troupe that cleverly perform behind a backlit white curtain, so their shadows are all you see from the audience. Thus, by positioning themselves differently across the stage they can appear to grow and shrink in size, and even combine to create intricate shadow puppets and combinations.

It came together really well, and certainly impressed the judges. Piers Morgan called their performance "one of the most brilliant things I've seen in a long time."

The audition rounds continued on 'America's Got Talent' (Tue., 8PM ET on NBC), bringing the best, and worst, talent from across the country. In the case of Zuma Zuma, the reach went far beyond the United States border.

The acrobatic troupe hailed from Kenya, but their impressive tricks were truly universal. We've seen jump rope tricks and we've seen human pyramids and even contortionists, but in Zuma Zuma we had all three in one, and more.

They're a diverse bunch, incredibly charismatic, hyper-talented and fearless. "I've never seen a tumbling act with no mats," Piers Morgan said. "I think people will like for you."

Either somebody buttered the stage, or the contestants are so concerned about impressing the judges on 'America's Got Talent' (Tue., 8PM ET on NBC) that they're losing track of where they are. In tonight's Season 6 premiere, two different acts took a tumble off the front of the stage, and it's not a short drop.

At this rate, we're going to see heavy padding put in place by the time these audition rounds are over with. Or maybe someone needs to put up a fence along the front there. There's already a string of lights, but that's not doing enough to get their attention.

One guy at least was dancing when he lost himself and went tumbling into the darkness. The second guy was doing some odd spoken word thing and had already been thrice X'd. If he'd stopped when he was supposed to, he could have saved himself a tumble.

Springer originally left America's Got Talent to appear on Broadway in Chicago, but that gig has since wrapped. I'm not sure what that means for next season of the talent show. After a shaky start, I think Nick Cannon has emerged as a capable and fun host for the wackiness of AGT. He's got a natural sense of humor about everything, which is essential when talking to "The Hoff."

Judges David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan will return to give their two cents about the acts performed on stage in front of them. One cast change is the arrival of Nick Cannon as host. Let's hope that Nick won't read the teleprompter too much and will have better interactions with the contestants than Springer did.